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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Norman Osborn - The Madding Crowd, Part 8 - R.A.Wonsowski

Panel 1 - Another early Ditko vibe...NORMAN OSBORNE, black suit with green turtleneck, foreground, is looking out his conference room window. DR. SKOLOS, cheap suit and white lab coat, background, sits at the long mahogany table for his midnight meeting, papers and blueprints scattered all over it, and he's losing patience, but trying not to show. NORMAN's face is obscured by his hands as he looks outside pressed up against the window.

SKOLOS: ...mind telling us what's so interesting out the window?

OSBORNE: There's a yellow man with binoculars scoping out your pharma labs down the way...

OSBORNE: (small print) ...could be one of the spider's amazing friends...

SKOLOS: No matter. If we could get back to the offer on the table...

Panel 2 - OSBORNE turns to the conference table, foreground. We can now see a blueprint of what looks to be some kind of scienc-y laser cannon with a seat and console attatched behind it. OSBORNE's head should not be visible, in fact the panel frame top should cut him at the shoulders.

OSBORNE: Ah, yes. Your pet project. Quite morbid, studying death.

OSBORNE: Why you need black-ledger experimental weaponry for your research is beyond me.

Panel 3 - SKOLOS leans back in his chair as he tosses a letter-sized manila envelope on the table, toothlessly smiling as he twirls his pointed goatee.

SKOLOS: Let's just say that the work is at a critical...phase.

SKOLOS: Is the deal not fair?

OSBORNE (off panel): Oh, no. It's more than equitable.

Panel 4 - OSBORNE has picked up the envelope, open at the end. We can only see his arms and hands above the table. One hand has tipped the open envelope, and something shiny and black, the size of a deck of cards, slides out and into his other hand.

OSBORNE: And you can stop psychoanalyzing me. I knew if I'd take your...deal...in the first fifteen seconds of our meeting.

SKOLOS (off panel): Then, why? If it's all so facile for you, why deal at all?

OSBORNE: Well...

Panel 5 - Close-up: NORMAN OSBORNE holds a large black diamond sliver, about four inches long, to his face. His right (our left) 2/3 of his face are in a Green Goblin-ish expression, but the skin is blackened. The normal third is dead serious.